Navy’s largest aircraft carrier returning to US after extended deployment in Middle East
Mike Brest
Video Embed
The U.S. Navy announced the world’s largest warship, which was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, will come back to the United States, the U.S. Sixth Fleet said in a statement Monday.
The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier was one of two deployed to the Middle East to “contribute to our regional deterrence and defense posture,” the fleet said, as military leaders try to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from becoming a regional conflict. Defense leaders are continuing to evaluate their force posture globally.
HOW THE SUPREME COURT COULD DECIDE THE FATE OF TRUMP’S 2024 BALLOT ACCESS
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower will now be the lone U.S. aircraft carrier in the region as the Houthis, based in Yemen, attack commercial vessels in Middle Eastern waterways. The Houthis have attacked more than 20 vessels in recent weeks, which they say is in response to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
The U.S. military disrupted an attempted Houthi hijacking in the Southern Red Sea this past weekend.
U.S. Navy helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely responded to the Maersk Hangzhou’s distress call, and “in the process of issuing verbal calls to the small boats, the small boats fired upon the U.S. helicopters with crew served weapons and small arms.” The Navy returned fire in self-defense, sinking three of the four boats. The fourth boat escaped, while U.S. Central Command confirmed no damage to U.S. personnel or equipment.
The U.S. military created an international task force to safeguard commercial vessels in the region in response to the threats from the Houthis.
The Biden administration has insisted that Iran is providing the Houthis with the intelligence they need to carry out these attacks.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We know that Iran was deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea. This is consistent with Iran’s long-term materiel support and encouragement of the Houthis’ destabilizing actions in the region,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson told the Washington Examiner last month. “Iranian support to these Houthi operations remains critical. We know the intelligence picture which the Houthis use to operate in the maritime space is reliant on Iranian-provided monitoring systems.”
The Houthis attacks have raised security questions for international commercial shippers, and some have temporarily decided to avoid sailing through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Suez Canal.